Fallen Phantom
by Midnyght Saber
Summary: Inspired by two pics on deviantart. Post "Phantom Planet". Finding out that Vlad is back on Earth, Danny decides to rid both worlds of the elder halfa once and for all. However, what Danny never expected was to lose, and to suffer becoming Vlad's servant.
1. Luku Ykkönen

This is the first part of a three-chapter story based off of two pictures by Paradoxal of deviantART. Chapters One and Two are based on the pair of images, as well as the short entries in the artist's notes beneath the pictures. "He's after ME now" and "What has he done to you?" can be found at the following URLs:

"He's after ME now": .com/art/He-s-after-ME-now-7415999.

"What has he done to you?": .com/art/What-has-he-done-to-you-8197185.

Chapter Three is planned for release at a later date as part of the Random Drabbles series, around Chapter 152 and has no picture. I felt that ending at Chapter Two, especially how I wrote it, would be far too open-ended for me.

* * *

**Disclaimer:**_ Danny Phantom_ and all related characters and information are the property of Butch Hartman and Viacom International, Inc.

* * *

"I am beat! I just want to go home and get some rest." Danny said with a sigh of exhaustion. It had been a long day for him, having gotten out of school only to have spent the next six hours chasing down a random assortment of ghosts.

"No kidding. I don't remember the last time we've been up so late hunting ghosts, let alone so many all in one day." Sam smiled up at her spectral boyfriend, her thumb unconsciously rubbing the band of the ring Danny had given her the previous month.

Danny reciprocated her smile, easily keeping up with her scooter as he flew above her. He noticed Sam's motion, his heart warming at her actions. He'd proposed to her a month earlier, and he remembered well the tears in her eyes. He never liked seeing Sam cry, but those tears that she'd shed, the tears of joy that spilled from her amethyst eyes, had meant so much to him then, and still did now.

_Everyone always thought that we'd be dating someday. What a surprise it was for them when they found out we were engaged. _He smiled. _Things change when you don't think you've got a lot of time left. I'm just glad that we all made it out alive._

"I wonder what kept Tucker…aside from his mayoral duties." Danny stated as he dropped lower, now flying at Sam's side. "He's usually up for these little adventures."

"Yeah, but he's like us. He's had to mature so much in a short time. He's doing good for himself, though, and he's doing a great job for this town."

There was a rare mirth in Danny's voice. "Surprising how someone who dodges responsibility and homework can do so good in public office."

"Yeah, but when you asked him, of all people, for help on turning the Earth intangible…I don't know. It woke up some sense of meaning in his life."

Danny looked at his fiancée, knowing what she said was true. It was strange, but she was always able to figure out the little things that Danny wanted to say before he could get his thoughts together.

He knew something was wrong before he even stepped into his house, he and Sam having come to a screeching halt a few houses down from his own. The front door was open, hanging on its remaining hinge, and there was the sound of gunfire from inside.

Rocketing inside, Danny listened to the shots, the sound reverberating through the house, and he found himself unable to decipher where exactly they were. He flew upstairs, checking their rooms, only to find them all empty. The ops center, as well, was vacant. Danny felt the tingle of panic touching at the back of his mind. _Where the heck are they? _His ghost sense went off just then, its light blue wisp directing him downstairs.

Phazing through the floor into the basement, Danny found his parents under attack by a group of ghosts, much like the ones he'd battled earlier. He knew that the ghosts he'd dealt with were still secure in his Thermos, wondering where the new enemies had come from.

"Danny, we could use a hand here!" His sister had noticed him floating above the group, and Danny snapped back to reality, joining the fray, his ghost powers soon turning the tide of the fight.

His mother was armed with two ecto-guns, firing at any ghost that got too close to either her or Jack.

What ghosts weren't incapacitated by Maddie's gun-slinging were soon taken down by Jack and his favorite weapon, the Jack o' Nine Tails.

"Where have you been, Danny?" Jazz said as her brother blasted a ghost that was about to attack her from behind, landing next to her and helping her dispatch another couple of ghosts.

"I've been a little busy myself. I'm just now getting home from patrol."

"Jeez. What the heck is going on today? We've been under attack for the last two or so hours. I've already got two Thermoses filled to capacity. I…" She blasted another ghost, Danny immediately snapping his Thermos free of its holster and capturing it and another that got caught in the beam. "Thanks, little brother."

"No problem."

Within minutes, the Fentons had the situation back under control, the ghosts secure in Danny and Jazzs' Thermoses, a couple others snared by the Ghost Weasel.

"This is getting out of hand, Jack. Even with the Portal down, ghosts are still attacking. What is going on?"

"I don't know. Vlad's Portal was shut down after he tried to take over the planet, so there shouldn't be any way for the ghosts to get here in the first place."

"That's not necessarily true, Dad." Danny stated as he transformed. "There are natural ghost portals all over the world. They don't stay open long, but it'd be enough time for the ghosts to get through. The question remains, however, why they are attacking us."

"What do you mean, Danny?"

"Dad, think about it. Have you heard about anyone else in town dealing with this kind of ghost activity? They're targeting us."

The three Fentons turned to Danny, their minds processing this bit of information. Maddie immediately went to the computer console in the basement, checking the ghost monitoring systems' information against Danny's observation. "He's right." Maddie pulled her jumpsuit's hood down. "But why would they target us?"

"Aside from us being ghost hunters…" Jazz began, but her brother cut her off.

"They wouldn't target us just for that. They may be targeting me, though. I've had to deal with this kind of stuff since I first got my powers, so it wouldn't surprise me if I'm who they're after."

"It doesn't seem like you're the one they're after, sweetie. If that were, they wouldn't be focusing on attacking whoever is home at the time. Look." She pointed to the screen, and Danny scrolled over the information displayed. "So they are…huh. That's weird. Mom, get all the data that you can about the ghosts that have been seen here since the attacks picked up."

Maddie immediately started compiling the data for Danny as he turned to the stairwell. He'd heard footsteps descending into the basement, and turned to see Sam hanging out on the bottom stair. "Where've you been? I expected to see you in here, blasting away with whatever you had."

"Forgot my Thermos, remember?" She pointed to Danny's Thermos, securely strapped to the hip holster he'd recently designed. "Had to use yours the whole day."

His left hand slipped behind his head, scratching a bit ashamedly. "Oh, yeah."

"So what's going on?"

"We're trying to figure out why we're being attacked by the ghosts. Aside from my ghost powers and us being a family of ghost hunters, we can't figure out why the ghosts are targeting us and us alone."

"And that's not enough of a reason for you?"

Danny looked at Sam and shrugged. "You'd think there'd be something other than the obvious."

"Ockhem's Razor, Danny."

Maddie called her son over, the information he requested now scrolling across the computer screens. His eyes followed the collected information, including photos taken by the surveillance equipment. "I don't see any…wait. Stop the screens." The information stopped scrolling, Danny's eyes locked on a trio of ghosts he'd dealt with before. "I know these ghosts." He allowed his eyes to run over the displays again, and a twinge of fear pricked at his mind. He'd seen these foes before, but the ringleader…he couldn't be.

"Danny," Sam said, knowing that something had just scared the living daylights out of him. "what's wrong?"

"These are Vlad's ghosts. They work for him…serve him. I've fought them before." The pictures that were showing in front of him were of three ghost vultures and a plethora of mutated animals.

Maddie's eyes went wide. "I remember a few of these. They attacked us in the forest after our plane crashed on the way to the convention…The convention was a set-up by Vlad, wasn't it?"

Danny nodded. "The only thing I don't get is how he got back on-planet. I'm not even sure if he did, to be honest. His goons may just be operating on their own, following old orders from Plasmius."

"What are we going to do about this, then?" Jazz piped in, holstering her ecto-pistol and Thermos. "We aren't just going to sit around here waiting for another attack, are we?"

"There's not much else choice, sis. Like I said, I have no idea whether or not Plasmius is back on Earth. Until I can find a natural portal to the Ghost Zone, I can't check to see if he's there, and the government, whether or not they like me, won't let me activate Vlad's Portal under any circumstances. They claim it's 'too dangerous'."

Jazz looked at Danny with an expression of utter surprise. "Too dangerous? Too dangerous?! What the heck do they think…I mean…What kind of a crack excuse did they give you?"

Danny shook his head. "I know the idea of it being too dangerous for me seems like they're…I don't know…keeping me from something…or keeping something from me. They said that it was a matter of security because they didn't know how long they'd need to leave the Portal open and accessible to me."

"Couldn't you have requested that they give you some way to get in touch with them so that the Portal was shut down except for you to get into the Ghost Zone and back out?"

"I tried that. They gave me some crap about not knowing whether or not they'd be able to get the Portal shut back down if they reactivated it. Vlad's Portal was shut down when they initially got to his manor, so I don't know how much truth there was to the comment they made."

Sam turned to Danny. "Wait a minute. When the heck did you try to access Vlad's Portal?"

"Last week after I had to deal with Fright Knight again. He's still in containment until I can get him back where he belongs. In a way, I'm a little ticked off that I returned the Infi-Map. I could really use it now."

"What about Clockwork?" Sam asked.

"He'd really be a help now, wouldn't he?"

"Who's Clockwork?" Jack and Maddie asked in unison.

"And I thought Sam and I were the only ones that did that…Either way, Clockwork is the ghost master of all time. He can see into any time period, as well as travel into them. He'd be able to tell me whether or not Vlad's returned. I don't think he'd help though. Last time I talked with him, he wasn't too keen on helping me."

Silence fell across the assembled, and they soon left the basement, Sam heading home as the Fentons began the task of repairing their home once again.

- - - - -

A week passed before the next ghost attack, which, as expected, was targeting solely at the Fenton household. Danny had been home alone at the time, and, with the timely return of his sister, was able to get the ghosts captured and secured in the basement. Danny, however, kept one of the ghosts in his Thermos, intending on questioning him once his parents got home.

The ghost he kept – the leader of the ghost vultures, and the most likely source of information on Vlad's whereabouts.

Maddie and Jack had returned home a little over an hour later, and promptly secured the ghost to one of the tables for questioning.

"Vat do you vant, ghost boy?" the vulture asked, obviously annoyed and uncomfortable in his current situation.

"Information, bird brain. Where's your master hiding?"

"Master? You mean the other ghost? I don't have any idea! Vie are you asking me?" he snarled in response, his Russian accent thickening slightly as he grew more agitated.

"I'm asking you because we need to know if he's back on the planet or not."

"Vat do you mean 'back on the planet'? Ve didn't even know that he left!"

Danny raised an eyebrow. "Multiple ghost attacks, all aimed at my family, and you're saying that Vlad isn't directing you guys?"

"I never said the ghost vasn't directing us. I just said I don't know vere he is hiding."

Jazz touched her brothers' shoulder. "Try asking him where Vlad is."

"Huh? Why would I do that? He already said…"

"Just try it."

"Okay." He turned his attention back to the vulture. "Where is Vlad at now?"

"He's in the Ghost Zone. Apparently, he found a nice room to stay in at the king's castle."

"King? You mean Pariah Dark?" His voice began to waver slightly.

"Yes. Who else vould you think I was talking about?"

Danny's eyes turned to the floor. "Get rid of him." His voice was now hollow and empty.

Jack released the bonds that were holding the ghost down, Maddie immediately siphoning him into one of the Thermoses. "Danny, sweetie, what's wrong?"

"This isn't good. I want to know how the hell Vlad got back planet-side without anyone noticing. At the least, one of the various governments should have caught him. We're not the only country with a ghost-hunting task force." Danny turned to his sister. "How the heck did you know how to get answers out of him?"

"Easy. He doesn't think that Vlad is hiding. You have to ask exact questions to get the proper answer. Besides, it was just a hunch."

Danny shrugged. "I'm going to go upstairs. If anyone needs me, I'll be in my room, trying to figure out how to get to the Ghost Zone to go after Vlad." Trudging upstairs, his shoulders sagging under the weight of this current discovery, Danny knew that the worst was yet to come.

- - - - -

Her voice cut into his mental shelter as he continued packing his bag.

"Danny, are you nuts? He's got twenty years and a possible army on you? What can you possibly hope to accomplish doing this?"

"I'm not going in alone. I've got my own army behind me. Don't forget, the Far Frozen would do anything for the savior of the Ghost Zone." He turned to his fiancée. "Aside from that, thanks to you, I have a dragon ghost on my side as well. I won't be going on this trip without reinforcements."

"Then I'm coming with you."

Danny stopped in his tracks, then turned and grabbed Sam by the shoulders, forcing her eyes to meet his own. "No, you aren't. You are going to stay here with my family. I don't want you coming with me."

"But…"

"No. You mean too much to me, and I don't know how hectic this whole mess is going to get. The last thing I need is you getting caught in the crossfire. You stay here. I promise that I'll be back."

"Promise?" Tears were coming to her eyes, the fear and anguish evident in her glistening eyes.

Sliding his hands to her hips, he wrapped her in his embrace, holding her body as close to his as was possible. He tilted her head slightly, their lips meeting in a kiss that rivaled their first, a month previous in the frigid wasteland of Antarctica. He pulled away, his hands delving into the mass of her raven hair. "I promise, okay? I'll be back." He caressed her cheek. "I love you, Sam."

"I love you, too, Danny. I still don't want you to go, though."

"I'll be okay."

"It's not that, Danny. These attacks meant something. I just don't want to find out that it was a ruse, a trap he set for you that you just walk right into."

"Why would you even think that?"

"Danny, don't you get it? Once, it may have been about a grudge against your dad, but now…Vlad's seen your potential. He knows what you're capable of. He knows that your abilities can one day equal, if not exceed, his own."

"Sam, what are you…"

"It's not your father he wants out of the way. Now, Danny, he's after you!"

Danny hugged Sam tightly. He knew that she was being honest with him, if not a tab paranoid, but he too felt the gnaw of something lurking beneath the surface. He prayed silently that she wasn't right.

"You're coming back?"

"I promise you that. I'll be back, Sam." He grabbed her left hand, bringing the ring into her sight. "I told you, whatever happens, I want you to be there to share it with me. I meant that for my whole life."

She hugged him in return, comforted by the promise she knew he would keep. "I'll be waiting."

Without another word, Danny planted a soft kiss on her lips, grabbed his bag, and flew out of the house, headed for the Bermuda Triangle, the only place he knew where there would be a guaranteed natural portal waiting for him.

- - - - -

As he'd expected, there was a portal into the Ghost Zone in the Triangle. He flew in, taking a few minutes to get his bearings. He zoomed off to a distant patch of frozen land, almost immediately greeted by his friend, Frostbite.

"What brings the savior to our distant lands of ice?" he asked.

"I have a favor that I need to ask of you and your people. I just don't know if you'll be willing to help."

"You know full well, Danny Phantom, that we'd do anything for you?"

Danny looked to the ghost that stood before him. "What about fight for me, at my side?"

"What enemy has challenged you?"

"Vlad Plasmius. He's been hiding in the Ghost Zone ever since his failed attempt to take over the human realm. I don't know who he has as protection, but I do know that he's hiding out in King Pariah's castle."

Frostbite nodded. "I will go regardless. I will talk with my people to find out who else would volunteer for this mission."

"You realize that some of you might get hurt in this battle?"

"For that, Danny Phantom, we are prepared. An evil such as Plasmius, who is Pariah Dark in all but powers, must be stopped before his plans can be seen through."

Danny nodded, then hugged the yeti. "Thanks. I'm going to meet up with another old friend of mine. I'll be back soon."

Frostbite smiled, returning the hug. "You do know where you're going?"

Danny nodded before taking flight.

"We will be ready for you when you return, young Phantom.

- - - - -

"Dorathea, please, I need your help. You don't understand just how dangerous Plasmius is."

"I understand full well what he's capable of. I know what he did to my brother the last time he attacked the human realm."

"That was his goons, not him. They were using top-of-the-line ghost hunting equipment."

"Besides, you know that I can't leave my kingdom. There is no one to rule in my stead."

Danny hung his head. "I understand. Wish me luck."

"That I do, Danny. That I do."

- - - - -

"Danny, what happened?" Frostbite could tell that there was something wrong when Danny returned to the realm unaccompanied by any other.

"Dorathea said that she couldn't come. She had no one to take her place if she left…"

An earsplitting roar silenced Danny, and he looked up, his once dour expression lifted, and he smiled. The dragoness was flying high above, looking for a place in which to land.

As she touched the ground and reverted to her humanoid form, Danny embraced her in a thankful hug. "What made you change your mind?"

"I couldn't very well leave someone as dangerous as Plasmius out there. If you aren't able to defeat him, what will become of my kingdom and the rest of the Ghost Zone?"

"So, who did you manage to hold the throne while you're gone?"

"My brother, under strict orders not to return our realm to the Dark Ages."

With that, Danny nodded, the assembled Far Frozen nodding in reply. Aside from Danny, Dorathea and Frostbite, there were forty more of the ghost yetis backing Danny.

"Let's get this over with."

- - - - -

The castle looked just as creepy and evil as it had the first time Danny had ever stumbled across it, and he still couldn't believe that he was returning here for a second fight that just might mean the future of the Ghost Zone, if not his own world as well.

Walking inside, the small army moved slowly, the rooms and hallways checked and rechecked for any enemy forces. After the first hour of stumbling around looking for Plasmius, Danny began to get a little jittery. There was no sound in the entire building except for the soft footfalls of those assembled. No traps had been set off, no ghosts had attacked, and the silence was so deep that Danny didn't know whether or not it would be a good idea to talk just to break this enchantment they seemed to be under.

"Danny," Frostbite whispered, hoping not to startle the young halfa too much. Danny jumped nonetheless, and, relaxing, turned his head towards the ghost.

"Maybe we should head to where the Sarcophagus is. Maybe Plasmius is there, or at least somewhere near."

Danny nodded, the entire group headed towards the grand room near the rear of the castle where Pariah Dark was caught in eternal sleep.

As the last of the Far Frozen stepped through the doorway, the metal gate dropped down with an echoing clank that resounded off of the walls like the tolling of church bells, and clapping was heard beneath the resonating sound.

Plasmius stood on the dais just below the Sarcophagus, smiling with that same sinister smile Danny had always hated. The next thing he said, however, seemed like Plasmius had both read his mind and knew that Danny would fall in this battle. "Never send to know for whom the bells tolls, young Daniel. It tolls for thee."

With that, Fright Knight and legions of Pariah's undead army surged forward, Danny's small army suddenly swamped and desperately outnumbered. He watched as each of those that he'd brought with him turned and unleashed their fury upon the soldiers of Plasmius, then, knowing that there was only one fight that he need worry about, turned to the halfa standing before him, and he narrowed his eyes at his opponent.

"You're wrong, Plasmius. The bell tolls not for me, for I will not fall in this fight. It is you who will lose."

Without another word, the two hybrids began their duel, ectoplasm firing from their hands, then deflected by each others' shields, the castle being torn asunder in their rage.

"You can't defeat me, Daniel. You never could, and you won't now. Just give in. Give up. You've lost to me once and for all."

Danny's reply consisted of an ecto-charged roundhouse to Plasmius' gut, which sent him flying up and through a window far above the room. Danny rocketed out, following Vlad, his shields and blasts used again and again, both fighting and fending off his opponent.

A memory of a past fight flitted through Danny's mind, and he summoned the power from deep within himself, forging blades of ectoplasm in his hands. Vlad responded in kind, his magenta blade forming from the ethereal.

The two launched at each other, Danny thankful for his mother's training. His speed and agility allowed him to gain the upper hand against Plasmius, leaving bloody tears all over his suit, whereas Danny had only suffered a blade graze on his lower leg.

Sparks were thrown each time their blades made contact, the ectoplasmic blades burning against each other. No matter how fast Vlad tried moving, he couldn't get through Danny's sword defenses. The youth had been trained, he knew, by the same woman that, years ago, tried to teach him the same art with a blade. He looked back on that, now regretting taking her up on that offer.

Knowing that he was losing, and desperately searching for something that would give him the edge to destroy Danny once and for all, Vlad kicked out. He hit his opponent, sending Danny spiraling into the distance, his head meeting with the stone walls of the castle. Dazed, he looked up only in time to throw his shield up once more, preventing him from being skewered through by the glowing sword.

"Your mother has taught you well, but you are no match for me, Danny Phantom!"

"We'll just see about that." Knowing that there was a limit to his powers, even considering that he had become stronger in recent months, Danny unleashed his wail for only a few seconds, using it only enough to knock Vlad a decent distance away and to disrupt the ectoplasm that was keeping the sword solid.

Teleporting to above Vlad, Danny unleashed a violent spin kick to the back of his head, sending him in a mad spiral downward, into the void emptiness of the Zone. Teleporting again, but knowing that he was beginning to tax his body, he launched another kick into Vlad's stomach, sending him careening into the distance.

A roar sounded from within the castle, and Danny could tell from the sound that his troops were gaining the upper hand. Flying in and adding his own power to the fray, the remnants of Vlad's army was wiped out, what few were still able to fight running desperately away.

Danny bowed down to the assembled. "I don't think that I've defeated Vlad for good, but this is one victory that we have, and one that we should celebrate. I want to thank you all…"

"Danny, look out!" Frostbite cried, and Danny threw up his shield in defense against whatever it was that had frightened Frostbite, but it had been a fraction of a second too late. Magenta energy found the one weak point in the forming shield and had cut through, breaking Danny's defense and dropping him to his knees as he screamed in pain. Those that had come with to fight stepped forward, their aim to attack the one now cutting Danny down, but multiple clones of Vlad stepped forward, twenty years of training and fighting giving him the edge over the meager army Danny had put together before coming here.

"Did you really think that I would be foolish enough to let you fight me as I am? No, Daniel, you merely bested one of my many clones. You should have known that you wouldn't have been able to defeat me. I'm too powerful for you to be able to even hope to stand against."

Within moments, the few ghosts that remained turned and fled, Danny, despite his pain, crying for the loss of Frostbite and many others of the Far Frozen that had given their afterlives in a desperate attempt to save him.

"I told you that you would lose, Daniel. You should have listened to me. Now, I have only to destroy you and no one will ever stand in my way again."

Waves of magenta energy coursed over Danny, his suit ripped open in multiple locations, his green ghost blood streaming from the many wounds that Vlad was inflicting. The pain was becoming too much for him to handle, and he knew that it wouldn't be long before he would revert back to his human form. He had lost. All the hope and courage that had been within him when this mission began now fled his mind, and Danny, beneath the physical pain, cried out. He had broken his promise to the one that he loved. He was never coming back. He had promised, and she was never going to see him again.

Without warning, the pain stopped, the ectoplasm dissipating around him.

"I think that I've made a mistake, little badger. I think there is something far worse than killing you that I could do." With that, tendrils of ectoplasm began to creep from Vlad's hands towards Danny. In pain, most of his body too bruised and battered for him to move at this point, Danny crawled backwards, desperately trying to put up a shield against this attack, but his efforts were in vain.

The tendrils that crawled towards him wrapped themselves around his body, digging into each and every wound that covered his mangled form. Pain more horrible than anything Danny could have ever imagined flooded his mind, tearing at him with invisible claws, searching, probing, looking for a crack in his mental defenses where it could creep in and gain control.

Danny's last conscious thought before he succumbed to the pain and darkness was that Sam had been right: Vlad had laid a trap for him.

- - - - -

"Are you awake, little badger?"

A voice that he did not recognize as his own emanated from his lips. "Yes, Master."

"Then stand up and face me, Daniel."

His body was also no longer his own. It moved without his control, and though he tried desperately to fight it, his body stood and turned to the ghost that had now done this to him.

"You are no longer Danny Phantom." Vlad said. "You are mine to control, do you understand me?"

"Yes, Master."

"Then let the training begin." he said, a wicked grin plastered onto his face.


	2. Luku Kaksi

**Disclaimer:**_ Danny Phantom_ and all related characters and information are the property of Butch Hartman and Viacom International, Inc.

* * *

Sam's eyes were turned unwaveringly to the screen in front of her, as they had been during every free moment of the past four months. What so captured her attention was the machine she had gotten from the Fentons two weeks after Danny's disappearance into the Zone. Displaying the readings from the ghost sensors placed around the city, the device would normally show the presence of any ghost entering the city limits. However, as Maddie had programmed this smaller version with the ectoplasmic signature from the Boomerang, it would only ever alert Sam if Danny showed back up.

Two and a half months had been dedicated to nothing but trying to find Danny, and that included Sam and Tucker going into the Ghost Zone with the Specter Speeder while Maddie, Jack and Jazz searching through all the areas that they figured they could have found Vlad at, with the aid of the GIW, but to no avail. Even the scans of Pariah's castle had shown nothing, though the single foray inside had left Sam with a sick feeling in her stomach at the many shadowed forms they had found. Maddie had later explained that the shades they had seen were the lingering signs of a powerful ghost that had been destroyed, though bearing neither actual ectoplasm nor shape to help identify whose shade it was, they couldn't tell if Danny's shade was among the many there.

While they had not actually stopped looking for Danny, Sam was the only one who so desperately believed that he was still alive somewhere. As such, she still wore the ring he had given her, despite her parents' attempts to get her to remove it. With each passing day, the fliers posted around the country were slowly being removed, and more and more people lost hope that the young half-ghost that had saved the world was still among the living.

"Sam, please, you need to get out of the house. The scanner is connected to my PDA, so as soon as it responds, you'll know," Tucker begged. "It's doing no one any good for you to be this anti-social, and you're doing yourself no good. After all, do you really think Danny would be happy to find you like this?"

Sam sighed heavily, finally turning from the screen. "No, he wouldn't be," she answered, her voice weak and low, "but he'd be just as offended by the idea that you think he's dead."

"Four months, Sam?" Tucker asked. "You really think that he'd be alive and well after four months? No one has seen or heard from him, and he would have tried to get in touch with us _somehow_. You know, as well as I do, he's a bit spacey at times, but he wouldn't leave us worried like this."

"You say that as if you're sure that he could even _get_ a message out to us!" Sam roared, jumping to her feet and wheeling on her friend. "If something happened to him in that castle, and Vlad did manage to overpower him, what's to say that Vlad hasn't done something to keep him locked away?!"

Tucker shook his head. "I don't see how you are so sure Vlad would even bother keeping him alive. All those shades we saw…"

"Don't you _dare_ say it, Tuck," Sam said.

Tucker held his hands up in defeat. "Fine. Whatever. I'm not going to keep trying to talk you out of believing he's okay, but will you at least come out for a shake and a tofu melt at the Nasty Burger?"

Casting one last look at the scanner display, she shrugged. "Sure."

- - - - -

Standing slowly, the carmine pool at his feet staining his shoes, the specter shook the blood off of his fingertips as he pulled his hand from the elder man's chest. "It will forever leave me to wonder, you old fruit loop, just how you thought you could control me. You trained me, and you thought that I would just buckle down and serve you? All you did was make your 'little badger' stronger," he leered, smiling wickedly. "Stronger than even you and your pathetic powers could handle, apparently." Standing, he flared his wings for a moment, stretching them with a sigh. "Although some of the experiments you did to me make little sense. I mean…come on, Vladimir, wings? We could already fly on our own, so why add this little detail?" Furling his wings flat against his back, he kicked the body, splattering the floor with droplets of blood, going intangible to rid himself of the last of the red liquid on his suit.

An image of a shimmering gold ring with a blue-green stone flashed through his mind. "Though I am left to wonder why you felt you needed to mess with my mind. All that was needed was for you to tell me what job you wanted me to do, but now you have left me with only a feeling that there is unfinished business waiting for me elsewhere." Taking to the air, the last of the lights in the lab beneath the Italian villa where he'd been taken flickered off, leaving the body of Vladimir Masters in darkness.

- - - - -

"You know, you can take this however you want, but you look like crap," Tucker commented. "With there being no light you let in your room, I didn't see how bad you look."

"What are you talking about?" Sam asked, her brow furled in annoyance.

"Sam, in the past four months, how much weight have you lost?" he asked. "I mean, you're active enough to keep in shape and keep your weight normal, but you look like a frickin' toothpick."

Sam stopped, knowing full well that the part of her skirt hidden by the tee she was wearing hid the belt she now needed to wear, her clothes no longer fitting her as well as they used to. "About fifteen or so pounds," she confessed. "I've barely been managing two meals a day, and I'm not always able to keep it down when I do eat. I'm just glad that I'm managing to keep down Nasty Burger food."

Tucker sighed. "You're letting your worry and concerns get the better of you. If Danny is somehow still alive, he's going to be somewhere between furious and upset by this."

An explosion sounded from somewhere in the distance, Sam and Tucker both looking at the rising cloud of black smoke, and without a second thought, the goth was pounding the pavement, tearing off in the direction of the explosion, something inside of her screaming that Danny was back. She knew that Tucker was yelling behind her, but in her rush, she never heard what it was that he had said.

Tucker watched as Sam's form grew smaller as she tore off into the distance, looking down at the PDA that had begun to beep, and the ghost scanner responding with a deep red blip – a designation only for the most powerful and dangerous of ghosts. He yelled after her that it wasn't Danny, but she either didn't hear or didn't believe him, and with a sigh of resignation, he set out after her.

- - - - -

Turning the corner, Sam was getting close. There were, after all, throngs of people running the opposite direction she was, most of which were screaming "Ghost!" as they scattered. It also became obvious from the nearby clamor that Danny was embroiled in a battle with another ghost, and she regretted that she had not grabbed the Thermos before leaving home. Making it to the next corner and all but falling over herself in an effort to both turn the corner and avoid the ectoplasmic blast she'd nearly run into, she hit the pavement shoulder-first, and she knew without looking that the shirt was probably the only thing that saved her from ripping off a few layers of skin. Looking up, she found a sight that she never expected.

While he had indeed been in a battle, and with Skulker no less, the hunter's suit was in pieces, the ghost held within Danny's grip. As the hunter was crushed within his hand, Sam gasped, the ghost turning to her, and she stepped back in shock. Her heart was still pounding from the running, thudding so hard against her ribcage that she could almost believe it would beat its way right out of her chest, but the blood coursing through her body was suddenly cold as ice. Falling to her knees in the middle of the street, she could not pull her eyes away from the creature that had once been her friend and fiancée.

He stood there, as if he was unsure what to do with Sam, and only the faintest flicker of familiar green was in the eyes that met her gaze. As she slowly managed to pull her eyes away from his, she took in the glaring silver suit he wore, the oddly claw-like fingers and enormous demonic wings unfurling from his back, all of which glowed with an unholy red light. There was no denying it was Plasmius' influence that had mangled Danny into this twisted abomination, and it had been some profoundly horrible, soul-rending damage that Sam didn't even want to attempt to understand.

_Is there anything left of you, Danny? Anything at all hiding behind that faint green glimmer I pray that I'm not imagining?_ She turned her eyes to his once more, whispering, "Oh, please, no…Danny…what has he _done_ to you?"

- - - - -

The human confused him, as she was the only one he'd seen run towards him, but as he looked at her, the flash of light on her hand became answer enough. _She _was the unfinished business left in Amity Park. He growled lowly, once more damning the person that had implanted the image of the ring, and flung the remains of Skulker aside as he approached the human.

Sam struggled to her feet, moving back from the ghost that was approaching her, but it seemed he'd attained the ability to teleport, and his hand wrapped tightly around her neck as he lifted her into the air.

Grasping for her hand, he looked at the ring she wore, knowing for sure that she was the one. Turning his eyes to her, he smiled softly, his lips curling back away from the fangs his canine teeth had transformed to, pleased to feel the shudder of fear run through her body. "Who are you, human, that my master felt it necessary to mess with my mind?" he growled, raising the ring to her eyes. "This ring haunts my every thought."

Sam struggled to take in a breath, trying desperately to speak before this thing that had once been Danny grew angrier with her than he already seemed. "Your…master?"

A sinister smile worked its way across his face. "Yes, human, my master, Vladimir…or, at least, he once was my master. I have seen to it that he is no longer in charge of me." He ran his tongue gently over his fangs, "Or anyone else, for that matter."

Sam closed her eyes, still grasping at the hand that was slowly depriving her of much-needed oxygen, not wanting to believe that Danny – her fiancée and the savior of the world – had seemingly so enjoyed the idea of killing another.

_Sam!_ a voice cried from within the specter's mind, and he blinked, unaware of who had spoken to him, tightening his grip on the female's neck. He smiled as her lips began to turn blue, her face flushed and her eyes filled with fear.

_You can't do this! Leave Sam __**alone!**_ the voice cried out, and though in full control of his body, the gloved hand slowly and shakily released the teen, Sam falling unceremoniously to the ground, gasping desperately for breath.

Reaching down, the ghost attempted to grab the female, but she moved back too quickly for him to grab, especially as his own body began to fight against him.

Looking up from where she had fallen, Sam could see the glowing green lines in his eyes swirling within the otherwise red orbs, and she could tell that whatever remained of Danny was fighting. Why it had taken so much was beyond her, but she was thankful for the small miracle that Danny was, indeed, still very much alive.

A soft whine in the distance alerted the ghost to the fact that someone was charging an ecto-weapon, and he fought to turn around, succeeding only in getting halfway there before a glowing green net wrapped around him. As he fell to his knees, he glared up at the human that he had been so close to destroying, growling low as he bared his fangs to her.

And that was the last he saw as a hard object clocked him over the back of the head, and the world went dark.

- - - - -

His eyes snapped open, the orbs a weird mesh of green and red, and he tried to sit up, only to find himself strapped down and his body still unwilling to respond. Trying to curse the blue-suited individual nearby, all that came out was the single, soft word: "Mom."

Maddie turned to the specter on the table, her fingers finally stopping their incessant motions against the keyboard, and turned to the ghost they had captured. "What's wrong, Danny?"

From within the mental fortress of his mind, Danny saw his mother's concerned face, and fought against the specter that Vlad had made of his Phantom self, and fought to get out the words that would seal his fate. "Destroy…" he managed weakly before the red aura ignited anew, slamming Danny back within the cage of his mind.

Raging against the chains that kept him pinned, the ghost thrashed violently against the stretcher, his wings screaming in agony as he tried to flare them, finding them bound tightly to his body. Screaming in agony, his fangs fully revealed, he realized that whatever it was that was holding him was also taking away his powers, as he could no longer hover, and his strength was not nearly enough to snap the restraints.

Knowing full well that his mother needed his okay, and that Sam would know what to do, Danny pushed through all the barriers of his thoughts, and violently seized control of his own body, still a slave to the creature Vlad had designed. "You need…" he began, the eyes turned to his mother now almost completely green, "get Sam…remove…destroy…" He felt the ghost tearing at him once more, trying desperately to place him back within the prison he'd been in for four months, and Danny resisted. "Destroy Phantom," he said.

- - - - -

Slowly typing in the command that she had seen Danny enter a week or so before the Disasteroid, Sam couldn't believe what the Fentons were doing, and the tears in her eyes often blocked her view. "Here," she said, finally finishing the command list.

Jack walked the stretcher, still carrying the thrashing silver-suited ghost, into the non-functioning Portal, and softly pressed the 'On' button. Knowing full well what was about to happen, he couldn't help but feel that he was willingly losing his son to what they were about to do.

As Jack stepped clear of the Portal, Maddie picked up the power cord that connected to the Portal, closing her eyes as she plugged it into the wall, her ears still picking up the faint sound of crackling electricity. Two more weak pops were followed by the sound of the Portal gearing on, and the tortured screams of her son – or what had once been her son's ghost half – from within.

Moving away from the Portal, Sam having warned them of the after-effects, the three watched in awe and despair as the green goo that formed the Portal's passageway into the Ghost Zone exploded outwards as smoke began to issue forth from the sides of the unit.

With a resounding whoosh, the ectoplasmic barrier collapsed just as the power in the basement went out, leaving the three people in darkness. A moment later, the backup generator kicked in, and Sam rushed past the Fenton parents and into the destroyed Portal, weeping as she struggled to pull the stretcher back out, collapsing over Danny's inert form as she finally got him clear of the smoking debris.

"Sam…" he struggled out, coughing slightly. "Can't….breathe."

Danny was quickly surrounded, and all watched in muted anticipation as his eyes flitted slowly open.

Soft, baby blues greeted them.


End file.
